


Eyes of the King

by Magical_Devil_Alex



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Eret Needs A Hug (Video Blogging RPF), Eret has some growing up with religion problems, Eret-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Final Control Room on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), Gen, I think he's neat, L'Manberg | L'Manburg on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), Mentioned at least - Freeform, Multiple Pronouns for Eret (Video Blogging RPF), Religious Conflict, Some crying, Thats a Tag?, Toby Smith | Tubbo Needs a Hug, Wow, i just love eret a lot, kind of?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 14:48:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29777790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magical_Devil_Alex/pseuds/Magical_Devil_Alex
Summary: “Eret, why do you wear those sunglasses all the time?”Or, my personal headcannon for why Eret wears sunglasses and part of the reason why he betrayed L'Manburg for the crown.
Relationships: Eret & Toby Smith | Tubbo
Comments: 6
Kudos: 135





	Eyes of the King

**Author's Note:**

> Heeeeyyyyy.... just take this please.
> 
> Come say hi on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/alexthemagicaldevil

“Eret, why do you wear those sunglasses all the time?”

Eret looked up, startled at the sudden question that had come from Tubbo. They were both gradually repairing the walls that protected L’Manburg from outsiders, the ones that marked the new nation’s territory. It was a long task to repair such tall walls, but the entirety of the group had been up to the challenge, at least at first. What had started as a five person operation had quickly turned into a four and then three and two, with Wilbur, Tommy and Fundy all wandering off for various reasons. Now, there was only Eret and Tubbo.

Eret subconsciously brought their hand up to the darkened sunglasses that sat on their face. It’s been a long time since he’s taken them off, even to sleep. Most days he forgets they’re even there, hiding his past beneath their lenses.

Tubbo looks nervous, his posture very un-Tubbo like, Eret decided. Usually the boy was bright and cheery, a smile forever on his face, always ready for the next adventure. Now his shoulders were slightly hunched, lips pressed together and just barely looking Eret’s direction. 

“I’m honestly surprised it took this long for someone to ask,” Eret said, watching Tubbo’s eyes dart up to the glasses before looking down again. It was true, all things considered. This SMP was filled with all kinds of colorful characters, many of which made it their business to know everyone else's business. Eret had been prepared to answer that question so many times, prepared a dozen different answers that strayed from the truth, but no one, not even Dream himself, had ever asked. Sure, there were some questioning looks, especially during the night, but no questions. In a server where characters like foxes, demons, and half a dozen different hybrids co-existed, a single player that refused to take off her sunglasses wasn’t going to draw many questions.

Well. Until now, that is. 

“You don’t have to say anything,” Tubbo said quickly, his hands shaking so much that the portion of the wall he was building became slightly curved. “I mean, if it’s personal or something. Just forget I asked.”

“No, Tubbo, it’s alright to ask questions. I don’t mind.” Eret traced the outline of the right lens with their finger, thinking deeply. In situations like this, when someone asks about the sunglasses, he’s always lied. Even as a child, when the world was still innocent and open, he lied. In fact, Eret can’t think of a time when she actually told someone the _truth._ It was a secret Eret had been taught to guard with everything they had, and guard it they did. He still clearly remembered the one time he let down his guard, when everything went to Hell.

Yet… part of him wanted to tell Tubbo everything. Tubbo, who was probably the kindest and most understanding person Eret’s ever met. Tubbo, who loved bees and music and was best friends with Tommy, who was basically the personification of chaos. 

Tubbo, who asked him what should have been an innocent question, but was instead opening a door into a past Eret was desperate to forget. 

“Tubbo… what do you know about the legend of Herobrine?” Eret asked, her mouth flooding with the taste of copper. Even after all this time, his name strained out of her mouth, like Eret was afraid he would appear just over the horizon with the intent to reap her soul. Eret’s known he wouldn’t for for years now, but old habits die hard. 

The boy tilted his head to the side, clearly confused by the seemingly off topic question. “Umm… not much. The server where I grew up didn’t really care about him. Sure, I know the whole deal and whatnot: Notch creates the first world, Alex and Steve and eventually Herobrine, Alex and Steve have to come together to prevent Herobrine from destroying everything, but that’s about it. Why?”

Eret could almost laugh at Tubbo’s brief simplification of the oldest living religion in known history, but they didn’t. Instead, they smiled sadly as old memories they haven't addressed for years came rushing back.

 _Make sure to thank Notch for every gift blessed upon you._

_No white, never white. White is an abomination to our Lord’s name._

_Some people are born with darkness in their souls. It’s our job to make sure they don’t spread their darkness to the land around them._

_Those who follow the ways of Evil will be banned from Heaven forever._

_With eyes like those, you must be his reincarnation, born to destroy us all._

Eret took a deep breath before continuing, trying to keep the memories at bay. “The server I grew up on followed the Church of Notch very seriously. Festivals, rituals, services, holidays, the whole deal. You were taught from a very young age to thank your god for everything in creation, and to follow the ways of Alex and Steve in worshipping him.” Eret closed his eyes, practically seeing the celebrations he described, so bright and filled with every color imaginable. If he concentrated hard enough, he could smell the sugary treats and savory meats that were commonplace during festivals, the streets lined with every kind of food imaginable, all in worship of Notch. From next to Eret, Tubbo shifted slightly, causing them to open their eyes again. “And… above all else, you were taught to despise him. Herobrine.”

Tubbo was looking at Eret intensely now, still confused but enraptured in the story. Somehow, it gave Eret the courage to carry one. “Wearing white was one of the worst offenses you could do, besides outright stating you worshiped Herobrine. White was the one color not created by Notch, but by Herobrine, which meant it was an abomination. The color of evil, destruction, and death.” Eret’s voice felt distant as she said those last words, feeling more like the priests that constantly repeated them rather than herself. It was the mantra of her childhood. Evil, destruction, death. 

Herobrine.

“Are… are you okay Eret?” Tubbo asked after Eret had remained silent for over a minute. He exhaled, suddenly feeling like a jerk for putting all of this on the boy’s shoulders. He should be having fun being a kid, not listening to Eret’s ramblings about a past he should be over. 

Then again, Tubbo also shouldn’t be a part of this war, shouldn’t be a part of a server so bloodied and violent. But he was.

“Sorry Tubbo. I can-- I can stop if you want. You probably don’t want to hear the rest anyway,” Eret laughed, trying to lighten in the mood. Tubbo’s eyebrows furrowed at that. 

“I don’t want to push you, but you also sound like you need to get it off your chest. I don’t mind,” Tubbo said, grabbing Eret’s hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. “Plus, we have all the time in the world. You can take as long as you need!”

_We have all the time in the world._

Oh Tubbo.

The boy was right about one thing: Eret already felt lighter, a weight he hadn’t even realized was dragging him down becoming lighter and lighter the longer he talked. It hurt and didn’t all at the same time.

With another breath, Eret went on. He wasn’t entirely sure how to explain this next part, but hey, you had to start somewhere. “The server was uh-- was a monarchy. King and Queen, line of succession and all good stuff. And I-- I was their child. Their only child, in fact, next in line to the throne if something happened to both of them.”

Eret laughed at the look on Tubbo’s face, much more genuinely his time. None of his friends from the past several years knew about his (once) royal status, but he decided right then and there he would tell a few others if it meant seeing a similar look on their faces.

“Wait-- what-- you were next in line to be the King of an entire _server?_ Holy _shit_ Eret! That’s so cool!” Tubbo exclaimed excitedly before his face fell suddenly. “Wait a minute… if you were next in line… why are you here?” he gestured around them, to the entirety of the Dream SMP. 

Eret looked up to the sky, an infinite vast sea of blue and freely moving clouds. It was more than he ever got to see when he lived in the castle that defined his childhood, locked in a golden cage and rarely allowed to see people besides his parents and a few select servants. 

That place was never his home, not like the Dream SMP was. She hated that castle with all her being, even if a part of her longed to be there again, a royal with a purpose to help her people. 

_I would make sure the castle never confined me again,_ Eret thought. _No cramped rooms, just open spaces and windows everywhere. No one would be forced to stay there, and I would make sure no one felt the way I did in those walls._

“I’m here because… well…” before Eret could convince themselves otherwise, they grabbed the edge of their sunglasses and ripped them off. With anyone else there would have been a moment of adjustment to the sudden change of light, especially after so many years of living in artificial darkness, but Eret barely even noticed. It was the same reason he could go into the darkest caves without needing torches, look into the brightest lava without flinching. 

He looked Tubbo in the eyes, trying to guess what his reaction would be. “No one wanted a curse for a King, so I left.”

There was more to it than that, Eret knew, but he wasn’t sure he had the energy to talk about that just yet. His parents, doing everything they could think of to rid their child of evil, the hundreds of rituals performed on him by different priests, his frantic praying as he _begged_ his god to fix him. Then there was _her,_ the daughter of one of his servants that had been his only friend for so many years, showing her what hid behind his glasses, her betrayal that suddenly turned the entire server, his _people,_ against him. That anger, hurt, and sorrow still lingered in her chest after all this time, locked away and barely acknowledged.

Eret was expecting the blatant shock on Tubbo’s face, the half a dozen different emotions as the boy processed what he was seeing. There truly was no way to prepare anyone for what laid behind their sunglasses, the faintly glowing, blank white stare that were so unnatural.

The eyes of Herobrine. His people’s most hated villain, looking right back at them.

However, what Eret _wasn’t_ expecting was for Tubbo to fiercely hug her, burying his head in her chest and squeeze tight. Eret lifted their hands, stunned for several seconds before eventually wrapping their own arms around the boy, squeezing back just as tightly. 

“You are _not_ a curse,” Tubbo said, his voice muffled in Eret’s chest. “You’re kind and helpful and you don’t laugh when I ask stupid questions and you’re so brave and and and-- and I’m so sorry that anyone ever made you feel otherwise,” Tubbo was crying by the end, which in turn made Eret start crying as well, tears running down his face as he placed his chin on Tubbo’s fluffy head.

“You don’t need to apologize for them,” Eret choked out. “It was a long time ago, anyway.”

“Still. If we weren’t in the middle of a revolution, I would say we should declare war on them and show them what they missed out on.”

Eret hiccuped into a laugh, trying to push away memories of a white mask and a selfish promise, of a dark room hidden deep underground and a single button, his gut swelling with both determination and guilt. 

“Honestly, from what I hear about them these days, we could probably do it,” Eret replied. Years ago he would have never talked even a little bit badly about his home server, but as she said before, the Dream SMP server was her home now. 

Eret pulled away from the boy, whose eyes were red from crying. They wipe those tear tracks away from Tubbo’s cheeks, savoring every moment they had with their friend. Soon, Eret thought, he wouldn’t have this anymore.

Soon, Eret would betray them all.

“Besides,” he said with false lightness, “who needs to be King anyway?”


End file.
